Workers and Robots are Now Building Volkswagen Cars
Together

ODENSE, Denmark &
SALZGITTER, Germany--August 29, 2013: The car
manufacturing group Volkswagen has integrated an industrial
robotic arm from the Danish manufacturer Universal Robots into mass
production at its engine production plant in Salzgitter,
Germany.The
lightweight robot UR5is installed in the cylinder head
assembly section, where it is responsible for handling delicate glow
plugs.This is the first collaborative robot in use at
Volkswagen
worldwide.Due to its integrated safety mode,the
six-axis robotic arm is able to collaborate directly with people
without
any guards, contributing significantly towards optimizing ergonomic
working processes.

“This was able to be accomplished mainly due to the
result-oriented and
constructive collaboration between Volkswagen and our partner Faude
Automatisierungstechnik.”

The Volkswagen plant in Salzgitter, with an area of 2,800,000 square
metres, is one of the largest engine production plants in the
world. Some 6,000 employees manufacture approximately 7,000 gas and
diesel engines in over 370 variants there every day. The 3- to
16-cylinder engines are installed in the various models and brands of
the Volkswagen group. The car manufacturer recently deployed a
collaborative industrial robotic arm from the Danish manufacturer,
Universal Robots, with people in the cylinder head assembly section
of
the plant for the purpose of inserting glow plugs into the cylinder
heads.

By reason of its integrated safety mode (matching Standard EN ISO
10218), the industrial robot is able to work in the close vicinity of
humans. It is equipped with a collaborative gripper, which the system
integrator Faude Automatisierungstechnik has developed exclusively
for
Volkswagen and which meets the safety requirements of ISO/TS 15066,
the
specification standard for collaborating robots. Thus the robot was
able
to be integrated into the production line without additional
protective
housing.

"We would like to prevent long-term burdens on our
employees in all
areas of our company with an ergonomic workplace layout. By using
robots
without guards, they can work together hand in hand with the robot.
In
this way, the robot becomes a production assistant in manufacture and
as
such can release staff from ergonomically unfavorable
work," explains
Jürgen Häfner, project manager at Volkswagen's
Salzgitter plant.

The project was implemented over a period of two years in close
collaboration with Universal Robots' distributor
partner Faude
Automatisierungstechnik. Together, the two employees in production,
which were previously responsible for fitting the glow plugs onto the
cylinder heads, should be relieved of a burden. Until now, they had
to
insert the glow plugs in a stooping posture into the scarcely
visible
cylinder head drill holes.

Hand in hand with a robot colleague

This step is now being taken over by the six-axis UR5 lightweight
robot
from Universal Robots. It carefully picks up the delicate glow
plugs,
which are provided by a specially designed separation system, and
puts
them into the hard-to-reach drill holes. An employee is then
responsible
for fixing the glow plugs and for insulating the cylinder head, which
is
required for the next step in production. Thanks to the direct joint
working with the robot, which acts as an assistant, he can carry out
these activities in an upright, healthy posture. In doing so, he is
able
to keep a constant watch over the process, so as to be able to
intervene
quickly when necessary.

"We are delighted with the successful implementation of
this
unprecedented project and with the fact that our robots can
contribute
towards ergonomic work processes," says Thomas Visti, Vice
President and
Chief Commercial Officer at Universal Robots.

"This was able to be accomplished mainly due to the
result-oriented and
constructive collaboration between Volkswagen and our partner Faude
Automatisierungstechnik."